Season 16: Episode 7 - A QUITTER AND A FIGHTER: TWO FANS LEAVE THE GAME

A QUITTER AND A FIGHTER: TWO FANS LEAVE THE GAME: After withstanding numerous trips to Exile Island and non-stop torrential downpours at the Airai beach, Kathy Sleckman, the 46 year-old golf course vendor from Glen Ellyn, Illinois, dramatically quit the game. After Kathy tearfully admitted to her tribemates that she wanted to go home, Jeff Probst arrived by boat, and Kathy said she had had enough: "I'm never leaving my baby girl or my husband again, for this amount of time ever again." She and Jeff boarded the boat, pulled away from Airai, and Kathy left the game.

Facing Tribal Council for the third time in a row, the Favorites on the Malakal tribe, Ozzy, Amanda, Cirie, and Ami, outnumbered the Fans, Erik and Tracy, 4 â€" 2. The Favorites set their sights on voting out Tracy, as Ozzy wanted to keep Erik for his strength in challenges. Behind the scenes, Ami devised a complicated plan. She worked a deal with Tracy and Erik to vote with her and take out Ozzy. Next, Ami would convince Cirie and Amanda to vote for Erik in order to split the Favoritesâ€™ votes â€" two votes Erik, one vote Tracy â€" and give her and the Fans a majority of three votes against Ozzy. Moments before leaving for Tribal Council, though, both Erik and Ami were hesitant on whether or not to go through with their plan. At Tribal Council, the focus was on Ozzy after Tracy called him out as a leader. But, in the end, the Malakal tribe decided to keep their leader and vote out Tracy five votes to one. Tracy Hughes-Wolf, the 44 year-old residential builder from Fredericksburg, Virginia, left behind her final words: "Going up against the Favorites was quite difficult. Ozzy is a wonderful player in this game. He is manipulative and he is strategic. He will definitely take the rest of the tribe down. They need to get rid of him ASAP or they don't stand a chance. I wish I could have stayed in longer, I went out kicking. I did everything I could, and Iâ€™m just grateful to be here."

THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?
A fight breaks out at Malakal over whether to slaughter the tribe's three chickens for their meat, or keep them alive for their eggs. Tracy leads the charge to eat them, angering Ozzy. Referring to the chickens' egg-laying ability, Ozzy argues, "It's a renewable resource. You want to take out a renewable resource? That makes no sense." Tracy accuses Ozzy of waiting to kill the chickens until more people are voted off so he can have additional meat for himself. "Ozzy is in control of this tribe. Heâ€™s like the kingpin," points out Tracy. "Ozzy is gonna win this thing if we don't get him out of this game."

A BEATEN TRIBE
The women on the Airai tribe awake after a long, miserable night. As James works on cleaning out their cave, the girls, Eliza, Kathy, Alexis, and Natalie, complain about the rain, mosquitoes and the smell emanating from their cave. Alexis gripes, "I don't think anything can capture the true essence of this stench and this funk." James gets fed up with the girls' fussiness, snarling, "Just relax, we're not gonna be here forever. This is a game called Survivor." Kathy feels the most burnt out and begs Alexis for a hug. "Thinking of home," laments Kathy, "and my daughter and my husband, it's gonna make me cry, it's gonna make me want to be [home]."

ERIKâ€™S HERO
Erik watches wide-eyed as Ozzy scales a palm tree at the Malakal beach to chop down coconuts. Erik expresses his desire to learn from his hero, saying, "Ozzy is amazing. I honestly like Ozzy. He's an awesome guy and I wanna learn, I wanna grow." Ozzy, happy to teach Erik how to climb, proudly calls out advice from beneath the tall palm tree as Erik nimbly makes his way up the trunk. Ozzy cheers him on as Erik drops down coconuts, yelling out, "Yes! Youâ€™ve got good nuts now!" Cirie, perplexed by Erikâ€™s admiration for Ozzy, remarks, "Whenever [Erik] says Ozzy's name, stardust comes out of his mouth."
A MISGUIDED BOAT TRIP
Ozzy comes up with a plan to paddle the Malakal tribeâ€™s boat around the island to the back beach where the fish are plentiful. He enlists Erik, Amanda, and Cirie for the adventure. Cirie, admittedly not a strong swimmer, agrees to help on the condition they make it a fast trip because she's scared of the open water. Cirie warns them, "We better be able to get back before sundown." The four Malakal members paddle far out to the reef, where the waves are bigger but the likelihood of catching fish is even greater. Ozzy, seeing an opportunity, decides to take some time to do some fishing and swimming. This scares Cirie as she wants to make it back to the beach as fast as possible. Cirie moans, "I'm nervous as hell, I've never been out that far in the ocean in a little wooden boat." Ozzy tries to placate her, saying, "Nothing's going to happen, donâ€™t worry. Just trust me for a little bit." He drops the anchor and dives into the water. Erik and Amanda quickly follow suit. Cirie cowers in the boat as the younger tribe members frolic in the water, growing angry when they ignore her pleas to head in. "Ozzy is about numero uno, and that's [Ozzy]," steams Cirie. "So, they're gonna have this little reef adventure at my expense today, but it wonâ€™t happen again.

REWARD CHALLENGE: MONEY ROLL
The tribes arrive at the Reward Challenge and Jeff Probst explains the rules. For this challenge, tribes will work with traditional Micronesian money-stones, large wheel-shaped stones standing almost as tall as the Survivors themselves, once used as currency by the native people. Four blindfolded teammates will use long, wooden handles attached to the stones to steer them through a jungle course riddled with rocks and stumps. Two other teammates will act as callers, verbally directing their blindfolded teammates to four ground-level stations. Pushing the stones through each station, the weight of the stone will crush tiles cradled at each post. Here, they'll find a pair of smaller money-stones that will be used to solve a rotating-cog puzzle, a series of flat-laying pegged-wheels that spin and rotate to fit all eight money-stones. The first tribe to complete the puzzle wins Reward. The winning tribe will enjoy a trip to the Herbal Essences Great Escape Spa, and the chance to refresh themselves with Herbal Essences products and indulge in a tasty snack. The winning tribe will also send a member from both tribes to Exile Island.

Cirie and Tracy do the calling for the four blindfolded members of Malakal, and Eliza and Kathy do the calling for Airai. Cirie, shouting out commands like a drill-sergeant, leads Malakal to an early lead. They roll over the first station and break open the tiles as Tracy grabs the two smaller money stones for her tribe. Despite Elizaâ€™s best efforts directing the Airai tribe, Cirie and her Malakal tribe keep their lead and proceed to collect all of their smaller money stones. Cirie, Ozzy, and Erik quickly place all their small money stones on the series of rotating cogs, trying to fit them all into place and complete the puzzle. Airai catches up and Eliza, James, and Kathy quickly get started on their puzzle, struggling to make up lost ground. The Malakal tribe, scrambling to fit the small money stones into place, secures the last stone onto its cog to win their first challenge since the switch-up. As they select a member from their own Malakal tribe to miss out on the reward and go to Exile Island, Ozzy singles out Tracy, asking her, "Can you take one for the team [and go to Exile]?" Grudgingly, she departs with Airai's Jason for Exile Island. The triumphant Malakal embarks on their Reward to the Herbal Essences Great Escape Spa.

A TRIBE REFRESHED
The Malakal tribe arrives at their Reward, where they find an inviting spread of fruit, cookies, muffins, and juices. The tribe lets out squeals of excitement at the multitude of spa items, courtesy of Herbal Essences: shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, and combs. Ozzy notices Erik's happy reaction, saying, "It made me feel proud that we were able to win and bring [Erik] in and let him experience this." Ami, Ozzy, and Amanda spot a showerhead mounted atop a small water tower and they rush to clean themselves up. The three tribemates strip down and scrub each other's backs. Amanda cries happily, "How good does this feel?" Erik watches these proceedings with a goofy grin and Cirie laughs at her younger tribemates openly baring all and says, "Hey to each his own, if you feel free like that, by all means, get free. I just wouldnâ€™t do it."
THE HARD RAIN
A monstrous storm hits Airai, pounding down rain and lightning. They huddle for shelter and warmth in their cave, unable to prepare a fire. Kathy is beside herself, saying, "You watch this show at home and when they show the rain, they show it for like 30 seconds. They're not showing that youâ€™re standing in the rain or trying to sleep while you're being rained on for five, six hours, non-stop." The tribe holds each other's hands for comfort and waits for the rain to subside. James heads out into the wild choppy waters and fetches the girls a clam. They eat it raw with no fire to cook, tearing at it like animals. Referring to the Favorites, Kathy says, "Never in a billion years would I ever do this twice."

Night falls on the Airai tribe and still the rain does not let up. The tribe crawls deeper into the cave and Kathy jumps as a bat swoops past her head. The tribe is forced to settle down amidst the rats, bats, and bugs in the cave. Kathy exclaims, "This is the stupidest thing Iâ€™ve ever done in my life. This is the dumbest thing I've ever done."

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
As the sun rises on the Airai beach, Kathy sits on the tribe's boat, looking out towards sea. "When I woke up this morning I hadnâ€™t gotten any sleep," complains Kathy, "and I was looking for some kind of strength and I couldnâ€™t find it." She approaches James, asking him for "one more hug." He holds her and tells her, "It's okay, baby. We all got our bad days." Kathy finally breaks into tears, crying, "I canâ€™t feel my family." The girls, Eliza, Parvati, Alexis, and Natalie, try to comfort her. But Kathy breaks into sobs and tearfully declares, "I can't be here one more minute, I canâ€™t take it." The girls try to convince her to stay as Natalie pleads, "We all feel like that today. We all feel bananas." But no amount of comforting will placate Kathy and she pleads, "I wanna go home. I want them to come and get a boat and pick me up and take me away!" Jeff Probst does just that, arriving by boat on the Airai beach. He calls an impromptu meeting at Airai and asks the distraught Kathy, "Are you ready to get out of here?" Kathy nods, sniffling, and says, "I am." She hugs her tribe good-bye and climbs aboard the boat as Jeff sums up the tribeâ€™s situation, "So the Airai tribe is down to six in spite of winning challenges. The game continues. See you soon." He hops onto the boat with Kathy and they speed out onto to the open ocean. Kathy leaves the game.

Two Micronesian fishermen paddle a small canoe up to the Airai beach and disembark with armfuls of vegetables, fruits, spices, liquor, tools, and fishing equipment. Airai happily greets them, excited to learn from the skilled locals. The fishermen show Airai how to set traps for the coconut crabs and to fish with a simple hook and line. Pulling in fish after fish, Parvati proves to be a quick study. "I think this is one of the best rewards weâ€™ve gotten," gushes Parvati. "We can actually continually use this knowledge and come out here and fish in the morning. It's going to be amazing for us."

BREAKING UP THE BOYS
Sitting down to share a coconut with Amanda at the Malakal beach, Cirie confronts her about her crush, Ozzy. She points out to Amanda that Ozzy's selfish side came to light during their boat trip when he forced them to stay out at the reef despite Cirie's pleas. Cirie tells Amanda, "I think you got a dose of who Oscar really is." Amanda agrees, saying, "I'm starting to see that." Ami comes down to the beach to join them and the girls discuss how tight Ozzy and Erik are becoming. They see the young men's bond as a major threat and agree that getting rid of Erik would be the best move to make.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: WHAT-ER DRAG
The tribes arrive at the challenge as Jason and Tracy return from Exile Island. Jeff Probst informs everyone that Kathy has quit the game, and after shocked reactions from the Malakal tribe, the game goes on. Jeff explains the rules. One at a time tribe members will race across a floating bridge out to a platform in the water, while pulling with them a long rope attached to a giant wench back on the beach. Once they reach the platform, they will clip the rope onto large folded puzzle pieces and hang on to it as the rest of the tribe cranks the giant wench, pulling them and the puzzle piece through the water back to shore. Once the tribe has collected all five puzzle pieces, two tribe members will unfold the giant puzzle pieces and fit them together to form a large puzzle in the shape of a perfect square. The first tribe to solve the puzzle wins Immunity and is safe from Tribal Council.

The Malakal tribe takes an early lead with an amazing performance by Ozzy. He dashes across the floating bridge and clips into the first puzzle piece. Malakal cranks the wheel and Ozzy gracefully bodysurfs back to shore with his puzzle piece. Meanwhile, Eliza has trouble getting off the platform with her puzzle piece and Airai falls behind. Rather than taking turns with his tribemates, Ozzy opts to repeatedly run the course himself, giving Malakal a huge lead. The Airai tribe sends out Jason, Parvati, Natalie, and even Eliza once again, but still can't catch up to Ozzy. Riding in on the fifth and final puzzle piece for Malakal, Ozzy hits the shore, and Amanda and Cirie get to work on their puzzle. They unfold the large heavy pieces in the sand, trying to fit them together into a square. Meanwhile, Eliza, returning with Airai's last puzzle piece, quickly unlatches it and sets to work on the puzzle with help from Jason. Despite their early lead, Amanda and Cirie fumble with their puzzle pieces and Eliza and Jason make a huge comeback. Shoving their puzzle pieces together, Airai wins Immunity sending Malakal to Tribal Council for the third time in a row.

TURNING ON OZZY
Malakal returns to their beach, defeated once again. The Favorites, Ozzy, Amanda, Cirie, and Ami, meet at the beach to discuss whom to send home. With a majority of four, they can easily send home either of the two Fans, Erik or Tracy. They debate which one to vote out, and Ozzy firmly states, "We need to keep Erik. I think it just makes more sense to vote Tracy." The girls nod along with him, but Ami has other plans, "Ozzy's wanting Erik to stay because he has a good relationship going with Erik, but

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